


Guilt

by DrunkenOracle



Series: Blackouts [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 16:03:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3535553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrunkenOracle/pseuds/DrunkenOracle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liara is beginning to make a habit of getting drunk and getting into fights instead of actually dealing with her problems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guilt

Aveline sighed and shook her head at the pitiful sight before her. Liara Hawke was collapsed, quite ungracefully, outside the Hanged Man, clearly sleeping off too much drink. With a soft grunt of a sigh, the newest city guard hefted the woman over her shoulder and started off toward the hovel that Gamlen Amell called home. Liara did not even stir, though the trip was bumpy, and she barely grunted when Aveline threw her down upon the couch in Gamlen’s home. **  
**

“Where in blue blazes was  _she_?” Gamlen snapped, staring up at the city guard. “And why’d you have to bring her back  _here_?”

“She was unconscious outside of the Hanged Man.” Aveline’s voice was cool. She didn’t much care for Hawke’s uncle. “I brought her back here because she’s clearly injured. Where’s Bethany?”

Gamlen rolled his eyes and walked away, and after a muffled conversation the younger Hawke entered the room.

“Thank you so much, Aveline! I’m sorry, I know it must have been so much trouble to bring her over here.” Bethany sighed and sat beside her sister, inspecting the damage that had been done the night before. There were knife wounds on one arm, her nose was broken, again, and her jaw was bruised. “Not again, Liara…”

“She’s done this before?” The older woman shook her head, incredulous. “No, of course she’s done this before. Why am I even surprised?”

Leandra entered the room then, carting along a pitcher of water, and sighed at her oldest. “The last time she did this was when her father died. Drank herself blind and got into a fight at the Dane’s Refuge. Move back, Bethany, dear.” The younger girl glanced back at her mother and moved away from her sister, a soft sigh parting her lips.

Liara choked and sputtered against the cold water as it forced her awake, and she groaned against the harsh light of day that filtered into the hovel. “Maker’s balls, can’t you let a girl sleep off her hangover in peace?” She groaned out the words and closed her eyes tight, rubbing at the pain throbbing in her head.

“Not a chance.” Leandra eyed her oldest. “What did you do last night?” She huffed out an angry sigh. “No, don’t answer that. You got plastered and fought someone. Why? Why did you drink yourself blind this time? What damn fool reason did you have for getting into a fight  _this_  time, Liara?”

The Hawke girl groaned into her hands. “Mom, I got Carver killed. I couldn’t stop him. I didn’t act fast enough, and he threw himself in front of that ogre, and now he’s dead. I got my baby brother killed.” A shudder racked through her body as she struggled with the words and fought against her headache.

“I thought you would have learned from losing your dad that drinking yourself into a stupor doesn’t fix anything.” Leandra scowled and stalked away, only to call back from the kitchen. “So what about those bruises, then? How’d you get them?”

Liara winced as Bethany started in on the bruises with her healing magic. “Some sodding asshole was — nugshit, ow! Some sodding asshole was running his mouth about cowardly dog lord bastards running away from Ostagar and moving in and taking all the work.” She sighed. “I couldn’t stop myself. I don’t even really remember what happened but it took five guys to pull me off the sorry arse, and they dumped me out on mine.”

“And the open knife wounds?” Aveline growled out the question, staring down at the woman on the couch disapprovingly. “Where did those come from?”

Leandra returned from the kitchen with a glass of water and a cool wet rag, a scowl still present on her face. She handed the glass to Liara and the rag to Bethany, and as Liara drank the cool liquid, Bethany muttered and cleaned out the knife wounds.

“I don’t really remember, Aveline. I mean, clearly someone had a knife. I just… I don’t remember.” She gritted her teeth and growled as Bethany dabbed at the knife wounds and ran over them with magic humming in her fingertips. “I think… I think there was a second arse. A real knob-end… He jumped in… I don’t… I don’t remember why.”

* * *

“You damn well know why,” Varric snorted, downing more of his horse piss. “You were fighting his brother and called their mother a-”

“I did no such thing, Varric!” Liara scowled. “I still can’t believe you remember that. It was before I even met you.”

“Finish the story, Hawke.” Fenris downed the last of his drink and waved it at the nearest barmaid for a refill.

“Oooh, Broody’s impatient.”

“Keep your underpants on, Fenris, I’m getting there.”

* * *

“Maker’s breath, you’re a mess, Hawke.” Aveline shook her head. “Get yourself cleaned up. If I catch you like that again, I’m going to have to throw you in lockup for a few days.” The guard turned and left, closing the front door softly behind her.

Leandra sighed and watched her daughters. “This again, and not even Carver here to shout at you for it.” A range of emotions crossed her face and finally she retreated back to the kitchen, unable, maybe unwilling to say more.

Bethany sighed at her sister. “You can’t blame yourself for Carver’s stupid decision, Liara.” Her fingers ran over the cuts a few more times, stitching the skin back together with every pass. “He decided to jump in front of the ogre. It’s not like you pushed him.”

“But maybe I could have stopped him!” Tears leapt to Liara’s eyes. “Maybe I could have leapt in front of him… Pulled him out of the way… Something. But I did nothing, Bethany.”

“We are lucky we made it out of that fight alive, Liara! It’s not your fault that Carver didn’t.” She pinched the bridge of her nose before returning to her healing magic. “Just like it’s not my fault we lost Dad.”

The girls both fell silent, and when Bethany had finished healing her sister’s injuries, they sat together, held each other, and tried to heal.


End file.
